Disgust has a strong claim to be a distinctively human emotion. But what is it to be disgusting? What unifies the class of disgusting things? This book sets out to analyze the content of disgust, ...
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Disgust has a strong claim to be a distinctively human emotion. But what is it to be disgusting? What unifies the class of disgusting things? This book sets out to analyze the content of disgust, arguing that life and death are implicit in its meaning. Disgust is a kind of philosophical emotion, reflecting the human attitude to the biological world. Yet it is an emotion we strive to repress. It may have initially arisen as a method of curbing voracious human desire, which itself results from our powerful imagination. Because we feel disgust towards ourselves as a species, we are placed in a fraught emotional predicament: we admire ourselves for our achievements, but we also experience revulsion at our necessary organic nature. We are subject to an affective split. Death involves the disgusting, in the shape of the rotting corpse, and our complex attitudes towards death feed into our feelings of disgust. We are beings with a “disgust consciousness,” unlike animals and gods—and we cannot shake our self-ambivalence. Existentialism and psychoanalysis sought a general theory of human emotion; this book seeks to replace them with a theory in which our primary mode of feeling centers around disgust.Less

The Meaning of Disgust

Colin McGinn

Published in print: 2011-12-01

Disgust has a strong claim to be a distinctively human emotion. But what is it to be disgusting? What unifies the class of disgusting things? This book sets out to analyze the content of disgust, arguing that life and death are implicit in its meaning. Disgust is a kind of philosophical emotion, reflecting the human attitude to the biological world. Yet it is an emotion we strive to repress. It may have initially arisen as a method of curbing voracious human desire, which itself results from our powerful imagination. Because we feel disgust towards ourselves as a species, we are placed in a fraught emotional predicament: we admire ourselves for our achievements, but we also experience revulsion at our necessary organic nature. We are subject to an affective split. Death involves the disgusting, in the shape of the rotting corpse, and our complex attitudes towards death feed into our feelings of disgust. We are beings with a “disgust consciousness,” unlike animals and gods—and we cannot shake our self-ambivalence. Existentialism and psychoanalysis sought a general theory of human emotion; this book seeks to replace them with a theory in which our primary mode of feeling centers around disgust.

People have a primitive and largely automatic ability to recognize emotions in faces, an ability best explained by simulation, more specifically, mirror processes. In lesion studies of fear, disgust, ...
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People have a primitive and largely automatic ability to recognize emotions in faces, an ability best explained by simulation, more specifically, mirror processes. In lesion studies of fear, disgust, and anger, paired selective deficits have been found in experiencing and recognizing these emotions. A patient with insula and basal ganglia damage, for example, scored very low on a questionnaire for experiencing disgust and was also significantly and selectively impaired in recognizing disgust in facial expressions. Such findings are best explained by simulation theory, which predicts that damage to a neural system responsible for undergoing a certain emotion would also yield impairment in recognizing it. Mirror processes involve matching neural activation in both a subject and an observer of a specific mental state, and such processes have been identified (via single cell recordings and neuroimaging studies) for motor intention, touch, pain, and the several emotions listed above.Less

Simulation in Low‐Level Mindreading

Alvin I. Goldman

Published in print: 2006-08-01

People have a primitive and largely automatic ability to recognize emotions in faces, an ability best explained by simulation, more specifically, mirror processes. In lesion studies of fear, disgust, and anger, paired selective deficits have been found in experiencing and recognizing these emotions. A patient with insula and basal ganglia damage, for example, scored very low on a questionnaire for experiencing disgust and was also significantly and selectively impaired in recognizing disgust in facial expressions. Such findings are best explained by simulation theory, which predicts that damage to a neural system responsible for undergoing a certain emotion would also yield impairment in recognizing it. Mirror processes involve matching neural activation in both a subject and an observer of a specific mental state, and such processes have been identified (via single cell recordings and neuroimaging studies) for motor intention, touch, pain, and the several emotions listed above.

Disgust is among the strongest of aversions, characterized by involuntary physical recoil and even nausea. Yet paradoxically, disgusting objects can sometimes exert a grisly allure, and this emotion ...
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Disgust is among the strongest of aversions, characterized by involuntary physical recoil and even nausea. Yet paradoxically, disgusting objects can sometimes exert a grisly allure, and this emotion can constitute a positive, appreciative aesthetic response when exploited by works of art—a phenomenon we might consider “aesthetic disgust.” While the reactive, visceral power of disgust contributes to its misleading reputation as a relatively “primitive” response mechanism, it is this feature that also gives it a particular aesthetic power when manifest in art. Most treatments of disgust mistakenly interpret it as only an extreme response, thereby neglecting the many subtle ways that it operates aesthetically. This study calls attention to the diversity and depth of its uses, analyzing the emotion in detail and considering the enormous variety of aesthetic forms it can assume in works of art and, unexpectedly, even in foods. In the process of articulating a positive role for disgust, the nature of aesthetic apprehension is scrutinized and an argument developed for the distinctive mode of cognition that disgust affords—an intimate apprehension of physical mortality. However, despite some commonalities attached to the meaning of disgust, this emotion assumes many aesthetic forms: it can be funny, profound, witty, ironic, unsettling, and gross. To demonstrate this diversity, several chapters review examples of disgust as it is aroused by art. The book ends by investigating to what extent disgust can be discovered in art that is also considered beautiful.Less

Savoring Disgust : The Foul and the Fair in Aesthetics

Carolyn Korsmeyer

Published in print: 2011-03-08

Disgust is among the strongest of aversions, characterized by involuntary physical recoil and even nausea. Yet paradoxically, disgusting objects can sometimes exert a grisly allure, and this emotion can constitute a positive, appreciative aesthetic response when exploited by works of art—a phenomenon we might consider “aesthetic disgust.” While the reactive, visceral power of disgust contributes to its misleading reputation as a relatively “primitive” response mechanism, it is this feature that also gives it a particular aesthetic power when manifest in art. Most treatments of disgust mistakenly interpret it as only an extreme response, thereby neglecting the many subtle ways that it operates aesthetically. This study calls attention to the diversity and depth of its uses, analyzing the emotion in detail and considering the enormous variety of aesthetic forms it can assume in works of art and, unexpectedly, even in foods. In the process of articulating a positive role for disgust, the nature of aesthetic apprehension is scrutinized and an argument developed for the distinctive mode of cognition that disgust affords—an intimate apprehension of physical mortality. However, despite some commonalities attached to the meaning of disgust, this emotion assumes many aesthetic forms: it can be funny, profound, witty, ironic, unsettling, and gross. To demonstrate this diversity, several chapters review examples of disgust as it is aroused by art. The book ends by investigating to what extent disgust can be discovered in art that is also considered beautiful.

This chapter considers Nietzsche's use of broadly artistic methods in pursuit of his psychological aims of revealing the origins of moral attitudes and a revaluation of values: his rhetorical ...
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This chapter considers Nietzsche's use of broadly artistic methods in pursuit of his psychological aims of revealing the origins of moral attitudes and a revaluation of values: his rhetorical devices, concern for linguistic texture, evaluation of his works in terms of mood and tempo, and provocation of the reader's affects. Given his hypothesis that moral attitudes have their origin primarily in inherited affects, his way of writing is argued to be intrinsic to his aims. In the depiction of slaves and nobles in Genealogy I, Nietzsche's text provokes ambivalent emotional responses to both. In section 14 of Genealogy I there is a comic portrayal of ‘Mr. Rash and Curious’ who witnesses an imaginary creation of the Christian values ‘good’ and ‘evil’. It is argued that this passage provokes disgust at the suppressed aggression that motivates these values, harnessing a disgust for aggression prompted earlier by our reaction to the nobles.Less

Good and Evil: Affect, Artistry, and Revaluation

Christopher Janaway

Published in print: 2007-07-01

This chapter considers Nietzsche's use of broadly artistic methods in pursuit of his psychological aims of revealing the origins of moral attitudes and a revaluation of values: his rhetorical devices, concern for linguistic texture, evaluation of his works in terms of mood and tempo, and provocation of the reader's affects. Given his hypothesis that moral attitudes have their origin primarily in inherited affects, his way of writing is argued to be intrinsic to his aims. In the depiction of slaves and nobles in Genealogy I, Nietzsche's text provokes ambivalent emotional responses to both. In section 14 of Genealogy I there is a comic portrayal of ‘Mr. Rash and Curious’ who witnesses an imaginary creation of the Christian values ‘good’ and ‘evil’. It is argued that this passage provokes disgust at the suppressed aggression that motivates these values, harnessing a disgust for aggression prompted earlier by our reaction to the nobles.

This chapter lists a number of categories of disgusting phenomena, accompanied by a pairing with relevant non-disgusting entities. The list provides the data for any plausible theory of the ...
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This chapter lists a number of categories of disgusting phenomena, accompanied by a pairing with relevant non-disgusting entities. The list provides the data for any plausible theory of the disgusting, and what is striking is how heterogeneous the class is. This heterogeneity poses a problem for the most initially attractive theories, forcing a subtler and more elaborate account of the disgusting, which will finally emerge in this study, hopefully. The goal is to find a theory that unifies the varieties of disgust.Less

The Elicitors of Disgust

Colin McGinn

Published in print: 2011-12-01

This chapter lists a number of categories of disgusting phenomena, accompanied by a pairing with relevant non-disgusting entities. The list provides the data for any plausible theory of the disgusting, and what is striking is how heterogeneous the class is. This heterogeneity poses a problem for the most initially attractive theories, forcing a subtler and more elaborate account of the disgusting, which will finally emerge in this study, hopefully. The goal is to find a theory that unifies the varieties of disgust.

This chapter analyses the menstrual cure for lovesickness in early modern medical and literary texts, suggesting how it throws important light on concepts of women, masculinity, and menstruation. In ...
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This chapter analyses the menstrual cure for lovesickness in early modern medical and literary texts, suggesting how it throws important light on concepts of women, masculinity, and menstruation. In this remedy, the lovesick man is shown the bloody cloths of his mistress, so that rather than inciting desire, her body provokes revulsion. Such a strategy mitigates the contradictions of male emotion and renders them justifiable: the lover's conflicting responses are represented as not the product of internal inconsistencies but rather as the inevitable result of being confronted by two seemingly different bodies. Male sexual insecurity is thus projected onto the female body, so that the lover's misogyny functions as a means of compensating for his sense of vulnerability and powerlessness. The menstrual cure also throuws new light on a key scene in Flectcher's The Mad Lover, which depicts how sexual disgust can cure the male lover.Less

Menstruation, Misogyny, and the Cure for Love

Lesel Dawson

Published in print: 2008-09-18

This chapter analyses the menstrual cure for lovesickness in early modern medical and literary texts, suggesting how it throws important light on concepts of women, masculinity, and menstruation. In this remedy, the lovesick man is shown the bloody cloths of his mistress, so that rather than inciting desire, her body provokes revulsion. Such a strategy mitigates the contradictions of male emotion and renders them justifiable: the lover's conflicting responses are represented as not the product of internal inconsistencies but rather as the inevitable result of being confronted by two seemingly different bodies. Male sexual insecurity is thus projected onto the female body, so that the lover's misogyny functions as a means of compensating for his sense of vulnerability and powerlessness. The menstrual cure also throuws new light on a key scene in Flectcher's The Mad Lover, which depicts how sexual disgust can cure the male lover.

This chapter presents a case study of so-called predicates of personal taste. The understanding of this category is that it involves predicates that we ascribe to external objects and events that ...
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This chapter presents a case study of so-called predicates of personal taste. The understanding of this category is that it involves predicates that we ascribe to external objects and events that express our sensibilities — examples include ‘spicy’, ‘funny’, ‘disgusting’, ‘fun’, ‘delicious’, and ‘nauseating’. It is shown that even for a domain as relativism-friendly as that of predicates of personal taste, agreement and disagreement data fail to support any kind of anti-simplicity view.Less

Predicates of Personal Taste

Herman CappelenJohn Hawthorne

Published in print: 2009-01-01

This chapter presents a case study of so-called predicates of personal taste. The understanding of this category is that it involves predicates that we ascribe to external objects and events that express our sensibilities — examples include ‘spicy’, ‘funny’, ‘disgusting’, ‘fun’, ‘delicious’, and ‘nauseating’. It is shown that even for a domain as relativism-friendly as that of predicates of personal taste, agreement and disagreement data fail to support any kind of anti-simplicity view.

An ancient objection to eudaimonism is based on the idea of “disgusting happiness”. Steven Cahn developed an interesting version of this objection based on a fictional character—Judah Rosenthal, from ...
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An ancient objection to eudaimonism is based on the idea of “disgusting happiness”. Steven Cahn developed an interesting version of this objection based on a fictional character—Judah Rosenthal, from the Woody Allen film Crimes and Misdemeanors. Judah passes all popular tests for happiness but is utterly morally corrupt. His case casts doubt on the naive identification of happiness with welfare. It's not clear that the case is decisive. Nevertheless, a form of eudaimonism that is intended to circumvent this problem can be developed. According to this novel form of the theory, the welfare value of each episode of happiness must be adjusted so as to reflect the extent to which the object of that happiness deserves to be enjoyed. It is left to the interested reader to determine whether the modification is really needed.Less

Disgusting Happiness

Fred Feldman

Published in print: 2010-03-18

An ancient objection to eudaimonism is based on the idea of “disgusting happiness”. Steven Cahn developed an interesting version of this objection based on a fictional character—Judah Rosenthal, from the Woody Allen film Crimes and Misdemeanors. Judah passes all popular tests for happiness but is utterly morally corrupt. His case casts doubt on the naive identification of happiness with welfare. It's not clear that the case is decisive. Nevertheless, a form of eudaimonism that is intended to circumvent this problem can be developed. According to this novel form of the theory, the welfare value of each episode of happiness must be adjusted so as to reflect the extent to which the object of that happiness deserves to be enjoyed. It is left to the interested reader to determine whether the modification is really needed.

Extreme Cinema surveys post-millennial trends in transnational cinema—particularly in its highly stylized treatment of explicit sex and violence. In many cases these cinematic embellishments skirt ...
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Extreme Cinema surveys post-millennial trends in transnational cinema—particularly in its highly stylized treatment of explicit sex and violence. In many cases these cinematic embellishments skirt narrative motivation or even impede narrative progression, favoring instead the possibility to elicit an affective response in the spectator: physical sensation separate from cognition and emotion. As a result, in many instances extreme cinema is not governed according to narrative conventions (narrative arcs driven by character motivation), and instead emphasizes spectacles. If not episodic in structure, then, extreme cinema might host abrupt ruptures in the diegetic narrative—experiments in form and/or composition (editing, extreme close-ups, visual disorientation, sounds that straddle the boundary between non-diegetic and diegetic registers), the exhibition of intense violence and pain, acute intimacy with bodies in the throes of sex. In more episodic films, like the musical, or pornography, extreme cinema frequently showcases set cinematic numbers that flood sensory channels with auditory and/or visual stimulus. Extreme cinema wields the potential to manipulate the viewing body (as demonstrated by “reaction” videos posted on hosting sites such as YouTube). Crucially, the affects and emotions prompted by these films can vary wildly: abjection, disgust, arousal, laughter. Films considered include those of the American torture porn genre, as well as films that other scholars and marketers have classified as “New French Extremity” and “Asia Extreme.” While content is assuredly a concern, what Extreme Cinema explores, above all, is the importance of cinematic form.Less

Extreme Cinema : Affective Strategies in Transnational Media

Aaron KernerJonathan Knapp

Published in print: 2016-07-01

Extreme Cinema surveys post-millennial trends in transnational cinema—particularly in its highly stylized treatment of explicit sex and violence. In many cases these cinematic embellishments skirt narrative motivation or even impede narrative progression, favoring instead the possibility to elicit an affective response in the spectator: physical sensation separate from cognition and emotion. As a result, in many instances extreme cinema is not governed according to narrative conventions (narrative arcs driven by character motivation), and instead emphasizes spectacles. If not episodic in structure, then, extreme cinema might host abrupt ruptures in the diegetic narrative—experiments in form and/or composition (editing, extreme close-ups, visual disorientation, sounds that straddle the boundary between non-diegetic and diegetic registers), the exhibition of intense violence and pain, acute intimacy with bodies in the throes of sex. In more episodic films, like the musical, or pornography, extreme cinema frequently showcases set cinematic numbers that flood sensory channels with auditory and/or visual stimulus. Extreme cinema wields the potential to manipulate the viewing body (as demonstrated by “reaction” videos posted on hosting sites such as YouTube). Crucially, the affects and emotions prompted by these films can vary wildly: abjection, disgust, arousal, laughter. Films considered include those of the American torture porn genre, as well as films that other scholars and marketers have classified as “New French Extremity” and “Asia Extreme.” While content is assuredly a concern, what Extreme Cinema explores, above all, is the importance of cinematic form.

This chapter sketches out a map of the territory, assembling the data and enunciating some distinctive features, with the ultimate aim of producing a theory of what unites the class of disgusting ...
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This chapter sketches out a map of the territory, assembling the data and enunciating some distinctive features, with the ultimate aim of producing a theory of what unites the class of disgusting things: what all and only disgusting things have in common. It surveys the class of disgusting things and attempts to work out what brings them together in the emotion they provoke: what properties do disgusting things have that make them produce the emotion of disgust in us? It follows Aurel Kolnai's pioneering phenomenological study, On Disgust, in classifying disgust as an aversive emotion, belonging together with fear and hatred. It is argued that disgust is a sui generis aversive emotion, importantly different from its aversive cousins. And this uniqueness is what makes it peculiarly problematic philosophically.Less

The Aversive Emotions

Colin McGinn

Published in print: 2011-12-01

This chapter sketches out a map of the territory, assembling the data and enunciating some distinctive features, with the ultimate aim of producing a theory of what unites the class of disgusting things: what all and only disgusting things have in common. It surveys the class of disgusting things and attempts to work out what brings them together in the emotion they provoke: what properties do disgusting things have that make them produce the emotion of disgust in us? It follows Aurel Kolnai's pioneering phenomenological study, On Disgust, in classifying disgust as an aversive emotion, belonging together with fear and hatred. It is argued that disgust is a sui generis aversive emotion, importantly different from its aversive cousins. And this uniqueness is what makes it peculiarly problematic philosophically.